Andy Cush

Very helpful piece by @cushac.bsky.social unpacking the problem of AI Slop

Why Is It So Easy to Flood Streaming With AI Slop? And what the hell is Operation Clown Dump?

wrote about slop www.hearingthings.co/why-is-it-so...

Asher White is so good at interviews!
www.hearingthings.co/asher-whites...

Asher White's Short, Strange Trip The young experimental pop auteur talks about her life in music so far, from her days as a tweenage noise musician, to the bad acid experience that pulled her toward songwriting, to her thrilling new ...

I had such a great time talking to the young GOAT Asher White about her brilliant new album and her days as a tweenage noise musician www.hearingthings.co/asher-whites...

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton of Los Thuthanaka Breaks Down 6 Perfectly Produced Records From Bolivian charangueada to Japanese heavy metal, these are the productions that inspire the visionary guitarist.

🚨I interviewed Joshua Chuquimia Crampton of Los Thuthanaka about Boris, Milton Nascimento, Weather Report, and the Smashing Pumpkins🚨 www.hearingthings.co/joshua-chuqu...

Zohran Mamdani can lower housing costs by getting everyone who jets between New York and the South of France to leave the city for good

The Great Instagram Jazz Guitar Plagiarism Scandal What Giacomo Turra shows us about the strange intersection of jazz and social media

there's been a scandal brewing on nerdy guitar-centric corners of YouTube for the last couple of months about a guy who got caught copying other people's guitar solos and presenting them as his own. i wrote about that bizarre saga here www.hearingthings.co/the-great-in...

including my favorite smartphone/internet-free (really!) nyc dead freak on drums. saw him DJ 2 cassette tapes of "the other one" simultaneously for a true "anthem of the sun" effect at ye olde williamsburg dead night.

thanks!

Dave McKenna Insists They Have Ham Trucks In France | Defector The topic in Defector’s internal chat on Friday was a ban, in the nation of France, on smoking in most outdoor spaces. How can the French—the French!—ban smoking? David Roth observed that “this feels…

Ham trucks in France: Are they real? defector.com/dave-mckenna...

Three Days in Prison On the road with one of America’s freakiest rock’n’roll bands.

I wrote an essay about life on the road in Prison (the band) and would be delighted if you read it www.hearingthings.co/prison-tour-...

Hearing Things Is Now 100% Worker-Owned A word from your fearless founders

Hearing Things is now 100% worker owned. it's a big, exciting step, and it means we need the support of our readers more than ever. www.hearingthings.co/hearing-thin...

I was gonna say 'Boarding Gate' but I see you beat me to it

Paul just told me he bought the 45 of the 60s novelty song “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Ha” as one of his first ever records as a kid in Louisville, sold it not long after, then as an adult saw his old copy in a shop in NYC, with his name written still on the sleeve, and bought it back

very grateful to be on the road playing rock n roll with my friends Paul Major, Doug Shaw, and Matt Lily, blasting the Stooges and Black Sabbath on late nite drives, passing the spliff around, getting stories from Paul about seeing Television in 77 and buying Led Zeppelin I at Kmart when it came out

to be clear I don’t think any independent music fan with a streaming account is a bad person or something, I had one for many years and I still host my own music on streaming, but I do want to push back against the prevailing notion that we as listeners don’t have a choice in our own participation

I really don’t know, honestly, and I tried to make my uncertainty about what artists and labels *should* do pretty clear in the piece I published earlier this week. but for me the choice as a listener feels a little more straightforward

lately i've been thinking about how people who already self-identify as belonging to "independent music" can put our money where are mouths are, rather than trying to convince the broader culture. i admit that's a limited perspective but it feels like a place where change might actually happen

sure, i mean your point about my focus on indie/DIY is true, that's the world i live in, when i say i go to ~3 shows a week in that NY Groove interview i'm talking about like 95% shows my friends are playing that i pay $10-15 at the door for, not PR guest list spots at webster hall

but i don't really buy that quitting streaming is for those who can afford it. i have 250 bucks in my bank account!

the line about listening to promo may have been ill-considered (i wrote this quickly as an intentionally sort of glib companion piece to a much larger feature), but was intended more to explain how i continue to do my job rather than a suggestion for non-journalists to follow

the point i'm trying to makeis not "how to get all 18-21 year olds to quit spotify and kill it once and for all," it's that, you, the reader, can easily choose not to give money to this evil corporation that is actively killing the thing you love. imo that choice matters whether or not teens follow

Tune In, Drop Out The independent musicians and labels who are saying no to streaming.

"… perhaps it’s because new [artists] are thrust immediately into the homogenizing machines of the streaming platforms, taught to think of themselves not as oppositional outsiders but as aspirants on the same playing field as global celebrities."

Tune In, Drop Out →

Tune In, Drop Out The independent musicians and labels who are saying no to streaming.

Really good piece here by @cushac.bsky.social on musicians and labels who are turning their backs on the streaming behemoths
www.hearingthings.co/musicians-no...

thanks!

Tune In, Drop Out The independent musicians and labels who are saying no to streaming.

Thanks @cushac.bsky.social for asking me about the decision to move on from streaming. Big feature for the site @hearingthingsco.bsky.social . Super cool to be a part of this movement.

www.hearingthings.co/musicians-no...

This is maybe the sweetest thing I ever read

Tune In, Drop Out The independent musicians and labels who are saying no to streaming.

you must read @cushac.bsky.social's opus on how some independent musicians and labels are quitting streaming and making their own path for a variety of reasons, not least of which are economic. feels like this is just the start of a way bigger movement www.hearingthings.co/musicians-no...